292 FISHES OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 



slightly sinuous ; basal margin of the operculum oblique, in a line 

 with the base of the first dorsal ray ; tail even at the end ; spots 

 large, irregular, many of a square form ; forty-two below the lateral 

 line, about one hundred and eighty above it ; flesh pale yellow ; 

 ceeca forty-eight. Bull-Trout of the Firth of Forth, Sol way Firth, 

 and Tweed, not common. 



(Plate XXXIII. Fig. 7 '.— Large-headed Bull- Trout.)— Length 

 twenty-six inches ; male ; three teeth on the anterior part of the 

 vomer ; tail even at the end ; suboperculum large ; basal margin of 

 the operculum very oblique ; preoperculum sinuous ; spots large, 

 many of a square form, eighteen below the lateral line, and ninety 

 above it; flesh pale yellow; cseca fifty. Bull-Trout of the Firth of 

 Forth, Solway Firth, and Tweed, frequent. 



(Plate XXXIII. Fig. 8.— Curved-spotted Bull-Trout.)— Length 

 twenty-seven inches ; female ; three teeth on the anterior part of the 

 vomer ; tail even at the end ; operculum and suboperculum narrow ; 

 preoperculum slightly sinuous ; basal margin of the operculum very 

 oblique ; flesh deep salmon colour, rich, and well flavoured. Rare 

 in the Firth of Forth, scarcely known in the Solway Firth, but com- 

 mon in the Tweed at Berwick, where it is named Whitling, and is 

 seldom found to ascend more than five miles up the river; beyond 

 that the fishermen call the young of the Bull-Trout, Whitling, for 

 want of knowing the true Whitling. It is supposed that these fish 

 deposit their spawn not far from brackish water, and that the 

 young enter the sea a week or more before their congeners. One of 

 two feet in length is of a very unusual size, the average length being 

 about eighteen inches. A specimen now before me of seventeen 

 inches in length, presents the following description. Shape much re- 

 sembling the salmon ; greatest depth a little in front of the dorsal 

 fin ; head one-fifth the whole length, caudal fin not included. Co- 

 lour of the back, dark glossy blue ; sides lighter ; belly silvery- white ; 

 dorsal and caudal fins dark ; ventrals and anal white ; pectorals at 

 their free ends nearly black, the base smoky blue ; spots of the form 

 of an Italic X ; ten below the lateral line and about seventy above 

 it. Basal margin of the operculum oblique; preoperculum rather 

 sinuous ; three teeth in front of the vomer, four on the tongue, thirty 

 on the upper jaw, eighteen on the lower, and nine on each of the 

 palatines. First dorsal fin placed half-way between the point of the 

 snout and the base of the tail ; adipose fin nearer the end of the tail 

 than to the first dorsal ; caudal fin sinuous, the middle ray rather 

 more than half the length of the longest ray in the same fin. Ven- 

 trals placed in a vertical line under the last ray but four of the first 

 dorsal. Pectorals rather more than the length of the base of the 

 dorsal. Scaks twenty-two in an oblique row between the base of the 



